“I realized we got through [Sewanee] by the grace of God and a lot of generous people who were there to support us.”
The Very Rev. Tom Purdy, T’05, T’27, P’28, says he never second-guessed his decision to leave a budding corporate career and enroll at the School of Theology—but that doesn’t mean no one tried to change his mind. Not long before he moved from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, to the Mountain, his division manager at UPS, where he’d been steadily climbing the ranks since high school, sat him down to lunch. “He just totally beat me up,” Purdy recalls. The questions came fast: “‘How much are you going to get paid as a priest? Are you going to have health care? What about retirement? Have you seen my house and the car I drive? Do you understand what you’re giving up?’” Purdy held his ground, and at the end of the meal, his boss reached out for a handshake. “He said, ‘Listen, I’ve been a Catholic my whole life. I go to church every Sunday. I’m really proud of what you’re doing.’”
Though resolute in his vocational choice, Purdy wasn’t financially naive. As an undergraduate at Millersville University in Millersville, Pennsylvania, he lived at home to cut costs and supported his tuition by working for UPS full-time—almost 50 hours per week during his junior and senior years, he says. “My life was school and work, and I taught Sunday school on Sundays.” At Sewanee, he and his wife, Donna, were keenly aware of budget constraints. They now help remove financial stress for current and future seminarians by regularly contributing to seminary scholarships and financial aid. Nearly 20 years ago, they also updated their wills to include a School of Theology bequest. “We’ve set aside a residual percentage of our estates,” he says. “It’s not a grand fund, but when the time comes, it will go to Sewanee.”
Calleigh (middle left) and Eva, C'28 (middle right)
Beyond valuing Sewanee’s strong theological curriculum, Purdy says he’s proud of the University’s unique Episcopal identity and has been excited to hear Vice-Chancellor Rob Pearigen, C’76, P’14, P’17, champion connections to the Church. Purdy’s own ties to the Episcopal faith run five generations deep. Growing up in Lancaster, he attended St. James Episcopal Church, where he sang in the choir and served as an acolyte. Saying he never missed a service isn’t hyperbole—Purdy remembers one Sunday when a blizzard closed the city to cars, so his family boarded a public bus to get to their pew on time. “People skied to church that day.”
Purdy says his call to ministry initially came in the form of encouragement from his priest at St. James and other theological mentors. Over time, “it became a constant affirmation that, yes, there’s a calling here. It feels right.” After graduating from Millersville with degrees in philosophy and psychology, and taking time off to marry and settle into a family routine, he began exploring seminary programs. Over the course of a year, he and Donna visited four schools—Sewanee, Virginia Theological Seminary, General Theological Seminary, and Seabury-Western. Sewanee’s close-knit feel made an important impression. “When we met Sewanee students—and I also knew priests who had graduated from Sewanee—they all spoke of the closeness of the community,” Tom says. “We really liked that.”
Sewanee was the right place," Tom says.
Uprooting their life in Pennsylvania and moving to rural Tennessee still required the Purdys to take a leap of faith. In Lancaster, Donna had worked in accounting—a field with limited employment opportunities on the Mountain. On the couple’s first trip to Sewanee, during a classic foggy day, they walked around the School of Theology and unintentionally passed by the Tennessee Williams Center, where they noticed a bench with a prominent inscription: “Donna, All Is Well.” The coincidence was too remarkable to ignore. “She didn’t tell me until after our visit,” Tom says, “but that was Donna’s sign that Sewanee was the right place.”
As anticipated, the Purdys found a welcoming home on the Domain. Tom says he especially enjoyed classes with the Rev. Dr. Donald Armentrout, who taught church history at the seminary for 42 years, and the Rev. Dr. Richard A. Smith, who led courses in New Testament Greek. Emeritus C.K. Benedict Professor of New Testament the Rev. Dr. Christopher Bryan, H’12, was another favorite. “He was so funny and just wonderful, even if his exams were a little intimidating.”
Though Tom was able to graduate from the School of Theology without incurring debt, he says budgeting was never simple. “I remember that our biggest struggle at Sewanee was finances.” For over a year, Donna worked mornings as a teaching assistant at Sewanee Children’s Center and afternoons as a part-time baker at the Blue Chair. Eventually, the Blue Chair hired her to bake full-time for a shift that started at 4:30 a.m. Though the hours were long, the position provided health insurance—a major relief, Tom says, as he and Donna had run into obstacles finding affordable coverage.
In his senior year at the seminary, Purdy was awarded the first Gessell Fellowship in Social Ethics, which is given annually by the University to support research in community issues and social theory. His project focused on assessing the cost of living on the Mountain and exploring the financial and ethical implications of providing a living wage. By that time, “I had spent a couple of years trying to get by [in Sewanee] on the minimum wage, and not having steady health insurance,” he says. “That experience really opened my eyes to what reality is like [in a lower income bracket], and just how far dollars needed to stretch.”
during a recent visit to the Mountain
Following Tom’s graduation and ordination, the Purdys returned to Lancaster, where Tom rejoined St. James Episcopal Church as an associate rector. After three years in that position, and another five years as rector at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Poolesville, Maryland, he was approached about the need for a rector at Christ Church Frederica in St. Simon’s Island, Georgia. At the time, “I didn’t even know Georgia had barrier islands,” he says. Nevertheless, the historic parish turned out to be a good fit, and Purdy recently marked his 12th year there.
Most careers involve a significant amount of on-the-job learning, and Purdy says parish leadership is no different. He credits Sewanee with providing the theological tools needed to grow his ministry. “I am constantly leaning on the foundation of my theological, liturgical, and pastoral education.” One tradition he’s successfully brought to Christ Church is Holy Humor Sunday—an annual service that weaves scripture with loosely theological puns and jokes together in the sermon. “My first Holy Humor Sunday sermon was at St. James,” he says. “When I first came [to Christ Church], they were unsure about it, and the first one raised some eyebrows. Now, people love it.”
Along with serving Sewanee as a benefactor, Purdy is a current member of the Board of Trustees and a University parent—his older child, Eva, is a sophomore majoring in environmental studies and sustainability. Tom is also a soon-to-be double alumnus: in 2027, he will earn a D.Min. degree from the seminary through its Advanced Degrees Program, a summer residency designed for clergy who have been in ordained ministry for at least three years. “We’re grateful that the Purdys have chosen to complement their many connections to Sewanee with a lasting philanthropic partnership,” says Walker Adams, T’18, acting associate dean of admission and advancement for the School of Theology. “Their planned gifts and generous scholarship support perpetually link them to the future of both the School of Theology and the Episcopal Church as a whole.”
Purdy describes his family’s Sewanee philanthropy as a tribute to all the people who enabled his journey at the University. “There were multiple times, during the years we were in Sewanee, when we would have bills we weren’t sure we could pay,” he says, “and then, a check would show up in the mail from a complete stranger—like someone from back home in Pennsylvania who knew I was in seminary.” Reflecting on those moments, he says, “I realized we got through [Sewanee] by the grace of God and a lot of generous people who were there to support us.”
